Locomotive-ash-pan cleaner.



T. IWAN AMI. LOGOMOTIVB ASH PAN CLEANER.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 7, 1909. v

Patented Aug UNITED STATES- PATENT OFFICE.

LocoMoTIvE-AsH-rAn CLEANER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 31, 1909.

Application filed January 7, 1909. Serial No. 471,174.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, TAKAO IWANAMI, a subject of the Emperor of Japan, and a resident of the United States, whose post-oflice of my invention is to provide a device of this character which makes it possibleto forcibly? eject the ashes from the ash pan without making it necessary for an attendant to rake them out manually, and to also open the ash pan doors by the same power which is utilized to eject the ashes.

With this brief statement, my invention consists in the ash pan cleaner shown in its preferable embodiment in the accompanying drawings and as hereinafter more particularly described and then claimed.

In the drawings accompanying and forming part hereof: Figure l is a side elevation of part of a locomotive of typical form showing my improvements applied thereto. Fig. 2 1s a view on a larger scale of the ash pan proper showing the mechanism for opening the doors and for ejecting the ashes.

Referring now to the details of the drawings by numerals: 1 designates the ordinary ash pit of a locomotive such as is in quite general use on the large railroads in this country and as shown it is provided with two doors 3 and 4 which are pivoted at 6 and 7 so that the ashes which fall on the bottoms 8 and 10 of the two sections of the ash pit 1 may be removed through said doors. The construction so far described is identical with that in very common use except that special rods and levers are employed for the purpose of manually opening the said doors, and these rods and levers are dispensed with in the present'apparatus.

In Fig. 1 is shown, in conventional form, an injector 15 having a water supply pipe 17 to connect it with the tender (not shown), said injector also being connected with the boiler by means of a pipe 19 and has what is usually known as an overflow pipe-20 which ordinarily conveys the overflowdown to the point when it may drop on the road 'bed. The parts so far described are those commonly employed on locomotives now in use and they are therefore shown only in conventional form and need no further description. The only change I make is to provide a steam pipe 23 leading from the steam space to the aforesaid pipe 20 and to also connect three valves 251, 26 and 27 with said overflow pipes, the valve 25 connecting the steam pipe 23 with the overflow pipe 20; the valve 25 connecting the overflow pipe 20 with a small pipe 28 leading into the boiler, and the valve 27 being-arranged to connect the overflow pipe 20 with the city water supply or a source of compressed air (not 'tshown). The said overflow pipe 20 instead bf dropping down to form a common waste, is connected to the means for opening the door 3 and 4, which means will now be described.

Located between the two parts of the ash pit 1, as clearly seen in Fig. 1, is a cylinder 30 which is divided "into two sections by mcans'of a divisional wall 32. \Vithin the cylinder are two pistons 34 and 36, the piston 34 being connected b means of a connection 35 with the left hand ash pit door 3, and the piston 36 being connected by means of a connection 37 with the right hand ash pit door 4. This construction is such that when steam in the pipe 23, or water from the pipe 28, or water or compressed air through the valve 27 is admitted to the pipe 20, such fluid will enter the cylinder 30 and force the piston 32 outward, thus operating upon the connections 35 and 37 opening the ashpit doors 3 and 4 in a manner readily understood from an inspection of Fig. 20f the drawings. The said doors are provided with springs 5 to automatically closethem whcnthe supply of steam or water leading to the cylinder 30 is shut ofi".

The steam cylinder 30 is also provided with two pipe connections 40 and 42, the section 40 leading to a blower nozzle 41in the left hand ash it section and the pipe 42 connecting Wis l2? a blower nozzle 43 in the right hand a 1 pit section and these connections are such that when the pistons are thrown outwardly sufliciently to pass by the points where the connections 40 and 42 are made in said cylinder 30, the same fluid which operated the pistons 34 and 36 will pass through said .pipe connections 40 and 42 and operate through the blower nozzles 41 and 43 to forcibly e'j'ectany ashes which may be in the bottoms 8 and 10 of the ash pit. 'In order to protect the -said blower nozzles from ashes or hot coals'wh'ich would otherwise drop directly upon them, I provide shields 46 and 47 and it will be observed that these are so shaped that the ashes will naturally fall by gravity off said shields onto the bottom'of the ash pit. The aforesaid cylinder 30 is also provided with two small connections 50' and 52 which arearranged to conduct any overflow from the pipe 20 into the connections 40 and 42 and they are by these connections led into the bottoms 8 and 10 of the ash pit l and thus. any hot cinders are extinguished by the water and the ashes are moistened so that there is no danger of burning the cross ties and any annoyance from dust is prevented.

As shown in Fig. 1 I connect two sources of supply 20 and 21 to the two sections of the steam cylinder 30 in order that the source of supply may be fed independently to the two pistons and thus each half of the ash pit can be cleaned independently of the other half. Inasmuch as the two sections of the ash pit are often of different sizes this will make it possible to preventwaste of water or steam, but if it is desired, the same source of supply may be connected to both sides of the steam cylinder 30 as indicated in Fig. 2 in which case it is only necessary to open one valve in order to operate both sections.

The operation of my invention is so simple that .it seems almost unnecessary to describe it; yet it' may not be amiss to state that when it is desired to clean the ashes by the use of steam, the attendant needs only to open the valve 25 when steam will be conducted through the pipe 23'to the pipe 20 and from thence to the steam cylinder, as shown in Fig. 2. As the steam enters said cylinder the pistons 34 and 36 are forced outward thus opening the ash pit doors 3 and 4 and at the same time uncovering the pipe connections 40 and 42 and permitting the steam to enter said connections and be forced vout through the blower nozzles 41 and 43 to forcibly eject. the. ashes out of the two sections of the ash pit 1. Onthe other hand, if it is desired to use the hot water from the boiler instead of using the steam, the valve 26 is opened when hot water willbe fed instead of steam, in the manner just described.

But if the locomotive is in a station where city water or compressed air is available or is in a round-house, thecity. water or compressed air may be connected so that the valve 27 may be opened to admit the water or compressed air to operatev in the same manner as has been described with relation to the steam valve" 25.

' It will be observed that my invention is extremely simple and that I have not changed 111 any respect the shape of the ash pit now in use and therefore my invention may be. applied to locomotives already in service by simply taking off the levers and connections overflow having valves also connectin with steam and water supply, substantially for opening the doors and applying my device in their stead. And for locomotives in process of building my invention may be applied for about the same cost as it now takes to fit the doors with elaborate connections and levers for operating the doors manually. What I claim as m invention is: 1. In a device of t e character described,

an ash pan, a door therefor, fluid operated means to open the door and fluid means to e ect the ashes, and a posltive connection between said fluid operated means and said door, the same fluid which operates the door opening means also acting to eject the ashes, substantially as described.

2. In a device ofthe character described, an ash-pan, a door therefor, a cylinder. a piston connected with said door for opening the same, and a spray nozzle located to eject the ashes from said pan, said nozzle being supplied with the same fluid which operates the piston in the cylinder to open the door,

substantially as described.

3. In a device of the character described, an ash-pan, a door therefor, a cylinder, a piston therein having a connection witlnsail door, a nozzle, and a connection between said cylinder and said noz'zle, said piston uncovering" said connection to the nozzle as it operates to open said door, substantiall-yas described.

4. In a device of the character described, an ash-pan, a door therefor, a cylinder, a piston connected with said door for opening the same, and a spray nozzle supplied with the same fluid'which operates the piston in the cylinder to open the door and valvesfo'r connecting both steam and water with said cylinder, substantially as described.

5. In a device ofthe character described,

and in combination with an injector overflow an ash-pan, a door therefor, a cylinder, a piston connected with said door for open ing the same, and a spray nozzle co-acting with said ash pan to spray the ashes therefrom, said cylinder having a connection with the aforesaid injector overflow and said overflow having a valve also connectiu it with fluid supply, substantially as described.

'6. In a device of the character described, and in combination with an injector overflow an ash-pan, a door therefor, a cylinder, a piston connected with said door for opening the same,'and a spray nozzle co-acting with said ash pan to s my the ashes therefrom, saidcylinder having a. connection with the aforesaid injector overflow and said it as described.

7. In a device of the character described, and in combination with an injector over-' flow an ash-pan, a door therefor, a cylinder,

2. piston connected with said door for opening the same, and a spray nozzle co-aeting with pistons therein connected with said doors,

spray nozzles, and connections supplying fluid to operate the pistons to open the doors and also to saldnozzles to eject the ashes the 'same fluid which operates the pistons acting through the nozzles to eject the ashes, substantially as described. 20 q 9. In a device of the character described, an ash-pan, doors therefor, a cylinder, two pistons connected with said doors, spray nozzles also connected with said cylinder, means for connecting fluid pressure with said cylinder to operate said pistons, said pistons as they operate to. open the doors opening communication to said nozzles,

whereby the same fluid which operates thepistons to open the doors also ejects the ashes, substantially as described.

10. In a device of, the character descrlbed,

an ash-pan arranged in two sections, a cylinder located between said sections and having pistons therein, doors connected with said pistons and operated thereby, spray nozzles also located in said ashans and connected with said cylinder an connections supplying fluid to operate the pistons to open the doors and also to said nozzles to eject the ashes the same fluid which-operatesthe pistons acting through the nozzles to eject the ashes, substantially as described.

11. In a device of the character described, and in combination with an injector overflow an ash-pan, a door therefor, a cylinder, a piston connected with said door for opening the same and a spray nozzle, said cylinder' having a connection with the aforesaid injector overflow, and said cylinder also having a connection to lead the overflow from the cylinder to the ash-pan whereby the cinders are extinguished, substantially as described.

' 12. In a device of the character described, an ash-pan arranged in two sections, a door for each section, a cylinder having two sections, a piston in each section, a connection between the pistons and their ash pit'doors, means for conducting fluid pressure to each section of the cylinder, a spray nozzle in each section of the ash pan, and connections between said nozzles and sections of said cylinder, the said pistons opening communication to said nozzles as they are forced outward by the fluid pressure, substantially as described. a

13. In a device of the character described,

an ash-pan formed in two sections, a door for each section, a cylinder arranged be tween saidsections and having two compartments, a piston for each compartment and a connection between said pistons and said doors, a spray nozzle in each section of the ash-pan and aconnection between each nozzle and the sections of said cylinder, and a.

fluid connection with said cylinder whereby the fluid pressure operates to force the pistons outward thus opening the, doors and. also to' eject the ashes from said ash-pan sections, a valve connecting said fluid connection with the boiler, a second valve for connecting with. the steam chamber and a third valve for connecting with an independent source'of supply, substantially as D. C. this 7th day described.

Signed by me at Wash, of J, any. 1909.

TAKAO IWANAML S. C. IIILL. 

